*Warning: I cuss quite a bit in this article. Normally, I would edit it out, but it felt right to leave it in this time. So head's up if that sort of thing bothers you.
I am a fan, however, and fan is short for
fanatic, which is good description of my relationship with Star Wars. I
take it quite seriously, so when, halfway through The Last Jedi, I
thought to myself, “I fucking hate this,” it caused a disturbance within me. I
had never felt that way watching Star Wars (yes, even the prequels). I’m
not alone, and there have been plenty of articles and videos stating most if
not all of the problems I’m about to list. I still wanted to write about this
film, though. Mainly, I wanted to work out for myself why I was so disappointed
with this movie. Secondly, I’ve become increasingly annoyed with the dismissal
of critics of this movie.
Fans of it seem to think there must be some
problem with anyone who didn’t love it as much as them. I honestly do wonder
how I could feel so differently from others about this film. It’s as if I
watched a completely different movie than they did. So I felt obligated to
explain that I don’t hate this movie because of women (strong women have been
part of the series since the beginning), subverting tropes of the series (it
only speeds them up), changing the Force (new Force powers and details were
added in every film), or any other stupid reason that allows people who love
the film to dismiss me. I didn’t like it because I found some plot elements
weak and/or pointless, I found it lacking (despite a couple of great moments)
in action, and it was simply boring too often. This doesn’t make me a hater. It
means I didn’t like this movie. There’s no conspiracy or agenda here, and I’m
not boycotting the series. I plan on buying this film, for God’s sake. (I may
even review it again after I’ve rewatched it, especially if my feelings have
changed.) I’m still a fan. I just don’t like this movie very much. It is
allowed.
I’m just going to go through every issue I had
with the film, every part I liked, and every issue others had that did not
bother me. There won’t be much order to this, as I’m just going to write about
each issue as I think about it. I will keep it organized into those three
categories, though.
Also, I will be bringing up the prequels a few
times, as I think a lot of stuff people claim The Last Jedi introduces was
actually in the prequels. I loved the prequels, by the way, which makes me sad
that I found The Last Jedi disappointing. For years, I’ve been defending the
prequels making claims that people who hated them “just wanted to see the
original trilogy again” and “don’t like change.” Now since I don’t like The
Last Jedi that much, I’m being lumped into that very group as people seem to
think the only reason to not like this movie is because we wanted it to be like
the other films. That is not the case. And this film is still very derivative
of the original trilogy, even if it upends a few things. Anyway, I’ll get to
all that. Here goes.
*Final note: I reference fan reactions and quotes from Rian Johnson throughout, but I was too lazy to go back and link everything up. The quotes are legitimate, but as for me speaking for people who love the movie, I'm taking that from YouTube debate videos, comments on articles and Facebook, etc. Not exactly stuff I can source properly anyway. Just know that I'm not making up fan reactions.
SPOILERS
Issues I had with The Last Jedi (in no
particular order)
So much death, so little caring
I get that this is the darker entry in the
trilogy, so things aren’t going to go well for the Resistance. I kind of like
that, actually. I mean, the entire resistance can fit on the Falcon at the end!
It doesn’t get much darker than that. My issue is that no one seems to care. I
like Poe Dameron and his desire to go blow stuff up, but shouldn’t he have at
least one scene of remorse for all the pilots that die because of his plans? I
know he gets called out for it, but he doesn’t care.
This applies to everyone in the Resistance.
Everyone seems very jokey and happy-go-lucky even though almost everyone is
dead. Were the other Resistance fighters hired guns? Sure, Rose has her sister
that she mourns, but everyone else is unfazed by it all. Ackbar died, for God’s
sakes! No moment of silence or something for him?
Defenders of the film might point out Kylo Ren’s
line about having to kill the past to move on, but do we really need to kill
off every single Resistance member except the notables to move on? And for
those that use his line (which I’ll delve into in my second article about the
meta bullshit of this movie), since when does one character’s line, especially
that of a villain, justify anything that happens in a movie? Oh, the bad guy
said it, so that’s why it happened? What?
All I’m asking for is a little emotion. Trash
the Ewoks all you want, but who doesn’t get a little teary-eyed when that one
Ewok dies and the other Ewok tries to wake him/her up and realizes what
happened? At least the Ewoks value life. Poe wants to lead as many people to
slaughter as possible and doesn’t think twice about it. But hey, they have to
die so the Resistance can be reborn. Because those losers weren’t true
believers or something.
Yoda looked weird
I don’t really have much for this one. I just
thought he looked weird. I thought they would have done a better job of making
him look like Empire Yoda instead of prequel Yoda. Not that big of a deal,
but I’m covering everything. But I have read where others think Yoda looked amazing. Maybe my eyes are messed up...
Luke’s weird island life
The milking scene was meant to be funny, I
guess? Was that alien enjoying it, by the way? And Luke couldn’t come up with a
better method for fishing? That seemed needlessly complex. And what’s with the
comic-relief nun-creatures? Why did they just suddenly show up after one of
those Rey-Ren talks?
Luke’s attitude
I’m not going to make some sad fanboy “You
ruined Luke!” claim here, but I didn’t buy that Luke would be like this after
failing as a teacher. So the Jedi have to end. Fine. But does that mean you fly
off and hide while the galaxy is taken over again? And if he didn’t want to be
found, why did he leave clues to his location? And how did Max von Sydow have
that clue in The Force Awakens? And, and, and, and...so many questions, so
few answers. I know that a film doesn’t have to answer every question, but with
the two new saga entries, it seems like mysteries were created to be answered
in other places, like books, videogames, comics, etc. And that is complete
bullshit. For everyone claiming this movie stands on its own, I will point out
every unanswered question that was only left unanswered to sell more shit to
us. Which brings me to…
Snoke!
The treatment of Snoke in this film left me the
most conflicted. I liked that they killed him off, but hated the lack of any
explanation of his identity. Writer/director Rian Johnson recently explained
that it simply didn’t make sense for his film to stop and explain who Snoke is,
but that it might be picked up in the next film or elsewhere. If it comes up in
Episode IX I’m okay with it. If Snoke is only explained in a video game or book,
then it’s Disney cash grab bullshit.
I’m not crazy about Snoke as a character, but
the mystery of him kept me interested. You can’t introduce this powerful Force
user out of the blue and kill him off without telling us where the hell he came
from. Sure, the Emperor was simply there in the original trilogy, but that’s
acceptable because we didn’t know what happened before the first film. Then the
prequels thoroughly explained where he came from.
You’re telling me that Snoke, who appears to be
very old, just sat out the previous intergalactic war between good and evil,
telling himself, “I’ll wait this out and swoop in when it all falls apart”? I
don’t care if this guy does have the ability to see in the future and could
have stayed in the shadows the whole time because he knew how he could rise to
power. Even if that is the case, there has to be at least one scene setting
that up at some point.
And it’s not like The Last Jedi doesn’t have
flashbacks. There was a flashback showing what happened between Luke and Kylo
Ren. So why not a quick flashback for Snoke. According to Johnson it didn’t
make sense for the story of the film, but when a sizable portion of the
audience is wondering who the fuck that all powerful being was that just got
cut in half, I think it might make a little sense to tell us who he is and how
he was able to stay hidden so long. It doesn’t need to be a flashback, even.
Vader’s backstory was covered with exposition in A New Hope. Why couldn’t
Luke explain who Snoke was to Rey? Maybe cut out that stupid fucking milking
scene and have Luke say, “By the way, Rey, let me give you some info about
Snoke before you head off to his spaceship.”
The problem is that they felt the need to bring
back the original characters, so they had to have some villain already there
since the films have to take place thirty years later. The issue there is that
this creates so many questions it seems like we need prequels to these movies.
I know they won’t do that, but something tells me there will be plenty of
comics, games, and books that fill in these backstories.
Would it have been so bad to have the past
thirty years be peaceful? For the First Order to have immediately come to power
makes the original trilogy pointless. Why not start Episode VII with the
origin of the First Order thirty years later? Snoke could be given an origin.
The Luke as a teacher scenes could have been the plot rather than a flashback.
You can still have Kylo Ren and Finn and Rey. They would just be introduced
differently or later. This way, instead of creating mysteries that would be
abandoned, there would be answers and the saga could move forward. Obviously
I could flesh that out a bit more, but I’m not trying to start some fan fiction
here. I’m just throwing out other possibilities that might have worked a bit
better and led to less fan rage.
Instead, we were introduced to needless
mysteries by J. J. Abrams and Rian Johnson said, “Fuck those mysteries.” I
can’t prove that he literally said that, of course, but it’s not hard to
imagine him thinking that as he wrote the script.
Wait, isn’t that just a complaint about The
Force Awakens?
Yes, it is. And I think the missteps taken in
that film forced Johnson into a corner. He had to try and move away from just
copying the original trilogy and he had to try to dismiss the mysteries he
had no interest in revealing. But in doing that, he jammed plotlines of
Empire and Return of the Jedi into this film to get it over with, which is
annoying if you didn’t care for the rehashed elements of Force Awakens. And he
did away with the most interesting mysteries of that film, which is also
annoying because those of us that hated the rehash plot clung to those
mysteries in the hope that they would come up with some great answers in this
film.
The lack of a unified vision for the saga
And that brings me to Episode IX. So if
Johnson was all about doing away with things Abrams introduced, is Abrams just
going to re-introduce this stuff in the next film? If so, that’s way too
sloppy. I’m fine with different directors taking a crack at Star Wars, but is
Kathleen Kennedy and the Star Wars team not controlling the story? They’re
willing to fire directors over creative differences, but they also allow
writer/directors to completely abandon story elements of the previous film?
That is why I prefer the Lucas films. He was the sole creator, for better or
worse. But he had a singular vision, and we didn’t have to wonder from film to
film if he was going to abandon or revisit elements from previous films. At
least this means all the movies coming forward will be surprising. But some
stability would be nice.
With that in mind, I’m actually interested in
Johnson’s announced trilogy that will be separate from the saga. I think
Johnson could make some great Star Wars films if he was given complete
control from start to finish, and he didn’t have to work around another
writer’s material. Fingers crossed.
That fucking casino
This issue has been beaten to death by the
haters, so I’ll keep this as brief as I can. This entire sequence was pointless
and boring. It was pointless mainly because the mission would not have been
necessary if Holdo would have just told Poe the plan (more on that later).
It was also pointless because Finn and Rose just
bumblefuck their way to this casino and immediately get arrested...for a parking
violation. They never even speak to the guy they came to see, and instead pick
up a stuttering Benicio del Toro, who I assume only stuttered because del Toro
insisted on doing something weird to keep himself interested in the character.
This is where lovers of the film will point out
that the mission is not the point. The point of the scene, and the entire
movie, is that Finn learns about the evil of war, and finally embraces the
Resistance. Okay, but didn’t that happen in the last film? Being ordered to
kill innocent villagers didn’t convince him? And when he joined the fight in
that film, was that not him making a choice? I’ve read arguments that in the
first film he was only acting to help Rey, and now he’s acting to help the
Resistance. I disagree. When he fights the “Traitor!” trooper, was he only
doing that to help Rey? Because that seemed like a moment to me; a moment in
which he realized he needed to choose a side.
Finn’s arc aside, the argument is made that the
casino sequence was about introducing hope to the stable children, which
represented hope in general spreading to a new generation in the galaxy. Again,
did this not happen in The Force Awakens? Did no one tell the stable kids
about Starkiller Base being destroyed? That wasn’t impressive enough? But a
couple of fuck-ups freeing some stupid-looking horse-creatures really gives
them the rebellious spirit? And at the end, they’re recreating Luke’s fake-out
fight with Kylo Ren. First off, how did they even hear about it? Second, that motivates
them, but Starkiller Base blowing up doesn’t? And finally, let’s say Luke is
what creates this new...ugh...hope in the children. (By the way, can we retire
or at least tone down the theme of hope in Star Wars? I think hope was
covered quite a bit in the first six films. Let’s just assume everyone is now
very hopeful in the galaxy and move on to something new.) So these kids are in
awe of Luke’s confrontation, but that confrontation was a lie. Do they know he
was a Force projection, or do they think he’s truly invincible? If they know
he’s a Force projection, why do they find that so impressive? And if they
believe he’s invincible, then isn’t that creating hope on a lie? Wasn’t Luke’s
whole goal to stop making the same mistakes of the old Jedi order?
People also point out that this is the first
time Star Wars has looked into people profiting from war and whatnot, because
Finn sees the rich people and DJ points out that one of them provides for both
sides. Hate the prequels all you want, but you can’t deny that those films
delved into the politics (the Senate debates) and economics (the Kaminoans
creating the clone army) of war. Hell, most people complained about the movies
being boring for doing so. But now that it happens in a non-Lucas Star Wars movie, it’s brilliant? Fuck off.
I just don’t see how Finn learning that rich
people are bad, deciding to fight for the Resistance (which he seemed to have
already done anyway), or learning about war profiteering excuses the fact that
he and Rose carried out their mission with the adeptness of Jar Jar Binks. And
I certainly don’t see rehashing those three existing elements as an excuse for
creating an uninspired, boring setting and sequence.
Maybe I’m wrong, and the casino sequence does
represent the soul of the film or whatever. That doesn’t makeit okay that the entire sequence is unforgivably boring. The wannabe Cantina sequence in the casino was a wasted
opportunity to add something interesting. Instead, we get bland aliens doing
goofy shit, like putting hundreds of coins into BB-8. I can remember damn near
every alien from the Cantina scene, but all I can remember from the casino is
the weird Justin Theroux cameo and that stupid drunk alien putting coins in
BB-8.
Even the freeing of those stupid horse-things
was lame. Say what you will about the prequels, but Lucas created great action
sequences. The pod racing sequence, for example, is insanely lengthy, but I’m
okay with it because it was done so well. The freeing of the horse-goats and the ensuing escape sequence, on
the other hand, was forgettable at best.
So much for being brief, right? I can’t help it.
This was the moment in the film that turned me against it. This is the sequence that prompted my “I fucking hate this!” response. There are moments in nearly every
Star Wars movie that I’m not crazy about (the Muppet performance in Jabba’s
Palace in Return of the Jedi, the terrible child acting in Menace, the
abysmal "love" scenes in Clones, etc.), but I’ve always been able to shrug it
off because of all the other awesome stuff going on. I couldn’t do that this
time, and that makes me very sad.
Those fucking horse-things
Yeah, I covered this already, but I wanted to
mention them one more time. I just hated their stupid faces...
For the first time, a nobody can matter
(bullshit!)
This falls into the defense of the casino
sequence, as people point to the stable children as the future of the Jedi.
“You don’t have to be a Skywalker to be a hero!” This was never the case,
anyway! These films have always been “about” the Skywalker family. Skywalkers
have been heroes because it’s been their family story. Even with that, however,
plenty of other people have been heroes. Han Solo was just a smuggler. Luke was
a farmhand. Anakin was a child slave. Obi-wan and Qui-gon were just Jedi
Knights. The whole idea behind the old Jedi system was about nobodies becoming
Jedi. Jedi aren’t allowed to have kids, so how could the Force be limited to
one family?
This is what annoys me the most about people
defending the film in this way. They take shit that has either never been an
issue or has already been established and act like this film broke the mold of
Star Wars and started everything over. I don’t care if you like this movie,
but don’t claim you like it because it’s the first “Star Wars” film to do this
and that when this and that have already been done in the previous films.
Force projections - AKA the Star Wars version
of the overused mask gag from Mission: Impossible
I am very worried about this new power.
Hopefully, it can only be done once and then you die or something. Otherwise,
every scene from here on out involving a Force user will have the question, “Is
he/she really there?” Please let this be a one-off power.
Luke had to die because…
...oh yeah, because Ren said so. Sorry, I
forgot.
Come to think of it, though, this is in keeping
with one of the weakest story elements in the prequels: Padme’s death. In
Revenge of the Sith, Padme dies pretty much because the story needed her to.
Even the doctor droid couldn’t explain why she was dying, aside from her losing
the will to live. I get that Lucas wrote himself into a bit of a corner in that
situation, but wouldn’t it have been much more powerful of a scenario if
Anakin’s force-choking of her really did lead to her death? I suppose Lucas wanted
to leave the guy slightly redeemable, but come on, he was killing younglings
minutes earlier in the film! Go for it and have basically murder the love of
his life. I know he’s still responsible for her death because she doesn’t want
to live after what he has done, but that makes her final moments weak.
The point is that Luke’s mom died seemingly for
no reason, so it stands to reason he would die that way too. I’m joking, but
that at least makes a little more sense to me.
Holdo refuses to tell Poe the plan
I mentioned this earlier, but I’ll point it out
again because I have yet to hear an argument for her withholding the plan from
Poe. Some have pointed out that Poe got demoted or was being punished for his
actions. So your plan for dealing with the hothead who always goes off and does
whatever he wants is to leave him in the dark, forcing him to go off and do
whatever he wants, like stage a mutiny. Good idea, Holdo.
The whole point of the film was to show that the
Resistance will stand no matter how much loss they endure, and that will
inspire the people
Again, hasn’t this been covered in previous
films? I don’t care about the whole “kill your past” bullshit. It’s ridiculous
that the Resistance is down to a couple dozen people. Are the stable children
going to be ready for the fight in the next film? I hope not, because using a
broom and using a lightsaber are two very different things.
Knights of Ren
Rian Johnson has said that he didn’t include the
Knights of Ren because he would have just killed them off because they would
have been Snoke’s guards. Fine, go ahead and kill them. I just want to know who
they are. Not having them in this film at all just makes me wonder what the
hell they are doing since chasing the Resistance seems to be the only thing
that matters to the First Order. Are they all just hanging out somewhere? It’s
just another example of something being set up that Johnson didn’t want to pay
off. That is lazy storytelling. I’m worrying more and more that Episode IX is
going to be a spiritual sequel to The Force Awakens rather than the end
of a trilogy. You cannot deny that these two films have lacked overall focus. I
guess you can claim that lack of focus is actually a “bold, new” direction for
the series. Starting to use your bed as a toilet would be a bold, new
direction, too (for most people), but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
Snoke has no peripheral vision
I’m no Jedi, but if something starts moving next
to me on the arm of the chair I’m sitting in, I’ll notice it.
The misplaced humor
The humor didn’t bother me overall, but it did
feel like they were worried about being too dark, so every time something
remotely serious happened, a cutesy gag had to follow within a minute. I don’t
understand how people who claim this movie works a standalone film can give it
a pass for the jarring tonal shifts. Any other movie would get (rightfully)
called out on that.
Luke’s chance to be a badass
Man, when Luke showed up to face down all those
Walkers, I thought, “Finally! Grumpy bitch boy Luke is about to redeem
himself.” And I expected to see him Force push a Walker down and start a domino
effect. But no, he was only projecting himself there. Sigh.
The (mostly) weak action
I started watching the Star Wars movies again
recently to get out of my Last Jedi funk, and I started with the prequels (I
know, blasphemy!). Especially after watching Revenge of the Sith I feel the
need to point out that despite whatever issues you have with the plot and
acting and whatnot of those films, you cannot deny that George Lucas delivered the action. Revenge has multiple huge, amazing action set
pieces, like the opening long take space battle, Count Dooku vs. Obi Wan and
Anakin, the General Grievous vs. Kenobi fight, and the showstopper: Obi Wan vs.
Anakin. Not to mention multiple smaller action scenes throughout. Some might
complain about the use of CG, but I honestly think it holds up. So far, the new
Star Wars movies have failed to hold up to that standard. I’ll give you the
throne room fight in Last Jedi, but aside from that the lightsaber action is
almost nonexistent. Some of the space battles are okay, but they lack the scale
of the prequels. It’s hard to watch Last Jedi and compare it to the prequels
and think that the budgets were similar. Lucas puts every penny on the screen.
Where did the money go for Last Jedi? Let me guess, they painstakingly
created practical costumes for most of the casino patrons that we barely see.
This brings me to my biggest issue: The Last
Jedi is a boring film, and that is unacceptable as a Star Wars fan. Some
people love it, and I wish I did. But I do not understand how anyone could
consider the majority of this movie entertaining. I love Star Wars for the mythology
it created, and for the awesome sci-fi action. The two new films can’t decide
if they want to copy the old films or subvert them, or make a statement about
the franchise, or whatever. Along the way, they forgot to make these movies fun
to watch.
Do I want an empty action film? No. And I don’t
consider the prequels to be empty action. But if you’re going to create
subplots that exist only for character development, at least go to the trouble
to create some memorable action.
Parts I liked
Believe it or not, I liked quite a bit of this
movie, although I’m leaning more towards overall hate the more I think about
it. Hopefully focusing on these elements will get me back to the “like, but had
severe issues with it” category.
The beginning space battle
An honestly thrilling and tense opening. Heads
up, I’m going to be shorter in my praise than my rage. It’s just how I am.
The killing of Snoke
I hate that they didn’t explain his origin, but
I loved that they killed him off. The more I look back to The Force Awakens the more it annoys me that it’s a remake of A New Hope. So I was prepared to
sit through a rehash of Empire followed by a rehash of Return of the Jedi. By killing Snoke now, as implausible as it may seem, the story can now go into
uncharted territory. I was truly surprised in the moment, which is always
welcome, and it opens up the story.
The lightsaber battle
The ensuing battle after Snoke’s death is easily
the highlight of the film. I’m starving for lightsaber action in these films,
so it was nice to finally see some great action. Even though it doesn’t make
sense to me that the guards would fight after Snoke died… Wouldn’t they just
start working for Kylo Ren? Maybe if we had any info at all about Snoke and
these guards… Anyway, great sequence.
The hyperspace ram
I pretty much hate the character of Holdo
because she needlessly withholds info, but using a hyperjump as a weapon was
badass. That coupled with the lightsaber fight nearly redeem the movie for
me...nearly.
Some of the humor
I didn’t hate the humor in the movie, and I
found quite a few moments genuinely funny. I think there is humor in the wrong
place at times, but overall this movie is actually funny a few times, whereas
other Star Wars films usually feature cutesy, weak humor.
The surprising nature of the movie
This goes back to Snoke’s death, but after that
moment, I had no idea where this movie was going, and it made the last hour
much more interesting than the first hour. Sure, they ended up redoing the Hoth
sequence for some fucking reason, but overall all bets were off and anything
could happen.
The fact that I have no clue what Episode IX will be like
This leads us to the next film. Will Abrams
revisit element Johnson dismissed? I hope he does a little bit, but one thing’s
for sure, he can’t remake Return of the Jedi because Johnson beat him to it.
I’m very interested to see where this series goes. It’s just unfortunate that
they had to make a weak ass Star Wars movie to get to that point.
Parts other people hate that didn’t bother me
(that much)
Women
I believe the sexism involved in some critiques
of this film (some dildo even made an edit that removed all the women from the
film) is simply a loud, pathetic minority of fans. As mentioned at the
beginning, this series has always featured strong women, so I don’t even
understand how a fan could be upset with the role of women in this film. That
said, it’s still okay to hate the actions of female characters without being
sexist. Holdo’s decision to leave Poe in the dark would have annoyed me just as
much had she been a man, for example. I only point this out because I don’t
like that people who dislike this film sometimes get lumped in with the idiots
who are mad because the main character is a woman or that the bad guys are all
men (which has also always been the case in the series). Some of us didn’t like
the film for legitimate reasons.
Leia’s spacewalk
I’ve seen this referred to derisively as the
Mary Poppins moment, but it didn’t bother me all that much. Aside from issues
with surviving in space, I didn’t see what the big deal was. I will say that in
light of Carrie Fisher’s death, it would have made much more sense for Leia to
die in this moment, especially since her character was very inconsequential
this time around. And if the plan is to kill off the main three (Han, Luke, and
Leia) one film at a time, why would Leia be the last to go?
Finn and Rose’s love story
This could be about Rose’s character in general
too, I suppose. Either way, it didn’t bother me that these two fell in love,
even though they seem to fall in love simply because they share screen time.
What I don’t get is people claiming that Rose steals the film and immediately
cements herself as a great Star Wars hero. I thought she was pretty bland.
The porgs
Look, ever since the Ewoks, there are going to
be animals or aliens that are just there to be cute for the kids. I didn’t mind
them.
Phasma
I’ve never understood the hype of this
character. She was given nothing to do in either film, so it doesn’t bother me
that she appears to get killed...again. It’s no major loss because aside from
being a female trooper with chrome plating, Phasma is a very minor,
inconsequential character.
The “running out of gas” plan
It’s a pretty weak plot element, but fine,
they’re running out of gas. Why not? It’s fantasy/sci-fi, you can go anywhere
you want with it. They needed a ticking clock, and this is what they came up
with. Now, whether or not this needed to be a ticking clock movie is another
matter...
Rey becoming badass seemingly overnight
...which is why a lot of people have issues with
Rey’s sudden abilities. If we’re doing the math, she was with Luke for a day or
two. If they didn’t have the running out of gas plot, Rey could have spent much
more time there. Either way, it’s unclear how long Luke stayed on Dagobah in
Empire, but it definitely didn’t seem like a long time. So if we’re cool with
that, we have to be cool with this. Also, Snoke mentions the light side rising
to meet the dark which explains it, but as stated before, I don’t believe plot
holes can be explained away by villains.
Final thoughts...finally
Okay, I hate this fucking movie. I do. I hate
that I hate it, but I do. I plan on buying it (because I’m a stupid nerd) and
watching it again, though. Hopefully, I see something different the next time
out. As it stands, this is a shitty Star Wars movie with a handful of decent
moments, but at least it sets things up for
Episode IX to be its own film. There’s always...ugh...hope.